Monday, November 1, 2010

It may seem strange that carving a pumpkin is on my Life List - how is it that in my 31 years I've never carved a pumpkin? Did I not celebrate Halloween as a child?

The answer is - yes, I did celebrate Halloween as a child, and yes, I did have a jack-o-lantern every year. I dressed up and went trick-or-treating with my friends, ate candy, and went to Halloween parties. However, my parents were not the type who let their children play with sharp objects - like carving knives - so the pumpkin carving was my dad's responsibility. I drew the design and was allowed to clean out the pumpkin guts, but the actual knifework was my dad's department. And he was great at it!

To be honest, even at age 31, I wasn't too confident with my ability to use a large knife to cut a face into a squash - without losing a finger. So I bought one of those pumpkin carving kits with the pumpkin saws and Larry and I carved up our pumpkins in the backyard - what fun!
We had quite a bit of help from our vegetable-loving pups - who thieved snacks of pumpkin chunks every chance they could get. I caught them both with their faces in the bucket of pumpkin guts...

Mmmm...pumpkin guts...
...delicious pumpkin brains!
Turn away for one second and someone might try to eat your pumpkin.
Gravy: What this jack-o-lantern needs is some teeth marks near the hairline. CHOMP.
Helping clean out the eye-hole (not to be confused with the a-hole):
Cleaning out the other eye-hole:
My pumpkin was just as delicious.
Banjo gets in on the action, too. French kissing a pumpkin:
Larry with our finished masterpieces - Jack and Ed:
There's something scary in the window...a pumpkin-eating greyhound!
Mwahaha...
...HAHAHAHA!